Once again this year, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has re-certified our congregation as a Welcoming Congregation, one that meets the needs of queer and trans congregants and the wider community. UUCPA became a Welcoming Congregation in 1998. To maintain that designation, each year a congregation must incorporate welcoming practices into its worship and religious education; carry out a welcoming project; offer a Welcoming Congregation module; and/or mark LGBTQIA Days of Observance.
In the past year, UUCPA held two worship services specifically on these themes, Because Every Body Is Sacred (July 18, 2023, with guest speaker Rev. Ashley Horan and Worship Associate Joe Bailey), and New Life, Fuller Life, Authentic Life (Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024, with Revs. Amy Zucker Morgenstern and Cat Boyle). The Welcoming Congregation Committee brought the traveling photo-text exhibit Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families to UUCPA this spring, a program of Welcoming Religious Education both for our congregation and the wider community, of whom many members attended.
Our welcoming project, in addition to the photo-text exhibit, was to support Outlet as one of our justice partners.
And we marked several Days of Observance: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, International Transgender Day of Visibility, Pulse Night of Remembrance, National Coming Out Day, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and International Pronouns Day. We even got some unsought, but welcome, media attention about the confluence of Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility.
Rev. Michael Crumpler, director of the UUA’s LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs, wrote to the Welcoming Congregation team, “It was a pleasure to read about all you have accomplished and the powerful work you have done. Sincere congratulations on your ongoing commitment to LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion in and beyond Palo Alto.”
Special thanks go to Matt Rosin, who keeps careful track of our work in order to make the annual report to LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs at the UUA, and reminds our congregational leaders of ways integrate such programming throughout our year.
In the coming year, we anticipate: a return of the Human Library, including human books who are queer and/or genderqueer; a Sunday service on asexuality; and a project making and serving dinner to folks at an LGBTQ-oriented homeless shelter. If you have an interest in any of these projects, or other ways we can expand our welcome, inclusion, and justice work for people of all orientations and gender identities, please contact the Welcoming Congregation Committee.